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Competition Aims To Make Cybergeeks Cool
itwbennett writes "The organizers of the Cyber Foundations program have some lofty goals. In addition to identifying a new generation of security experts, they want to make cybergeeks as cool as sports stars, said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a sponsor of the competition. The competition includes tests in computer networking, operating systems and systems administration. Registration is open until Feb. 18. and prizes include four full-ride college scholarships sponsored by the U.S. Navy, gift certificates, and letters of recognition from governors and members of the U.S. Congress."
Stop plastering "cyber" everywhere.
Linus Torvalds is already cooler than any football player.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Sports stars, sadly, are often rich, objectifying substance abusers. While some few compete legitimately and are gentlemen, most do not embody fair competition or the kind of behavior that I, at least, think we should be encouraging in our communities, our nation, or our species. Shouldn't our real objective be to teach that accomplishments and respect for others are what make people cool, rather than to make one group cool by heightening their profile?
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Really if we want to improve the image of a group of people, I would like to see a conscious effort to get people to look up to scientists. We try to say that we encourage great scientific research but we can't even bother putting great scientists on stamps? Mickey Mouse has been on how many stamps, yet I don't recall ever seeing an Einstein stamp.
But postage aside, we really end up - consciously or not - marginalizing scientists in our country. We don't give them the prestige they deserve, and we make them fight like American Idol contestants (to say nothing of the fact that many people can name more living Idol contestants than living scientists) for the kind of money that professional athletes would laugh at. Other countries hold their top researchers in great prestige; this may end up being just another sign of the decay of our empire here.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
When I hacked my first Gibson using an Osborne 1 and its Modem Peripheral all I got when I bragged about it to the captain of the high school football team was an atomic wedgie.
You seem bitter. Wedgie riding up today?
If geeks were cool they wouldn't be geeks. Part of being a geek is the whole uncoolness thing.
Besides which, "performing useful/important work" will disqualify you from being cool and popular. We'd rather pay people millions of dollars to chase a football around and thousands of dollars to secure vital infrastructure.
Our priorities are so fucked up like that. If we had severe natural selection competition from a competing species, we'd deserve to die out. We idolize and worship our most useless elements while oppressing and ridiculing our most useful.
I'm sick of this self-perpetuating bullshit that says geeks can't be athletic or interesting or cool (where "cool" means relatively unconcerned about what other people think about them) . Geeks are fascinating. They travel. They build things. They do interesting things with electricity and power motors. They make films, design cars, hike volcanoes, enter sporting events.
Being socially inept does not make one a geek. Certainly some geeks could give a rat's ass about how they appear to others, so they come off as anti-social, but that's often by choice. Boring chatter about the weather and the local sports team is fine, but boring is boring, and geeks often have better things to do.
Being non-athletic does not make one a geek. Yes, many geeks associate working out with some desperate attempt to impress others or the opposite sex (or the same sex if you swing that way) and just say no, but who can blame them?
I may or may not be a geek, who the hell knows or cares. But I do know that labels are a sad attempt to compartmentalize *people*.
Oh great, this thread again. Seems like every time a cyber word is used, a cyber-bully rears their head, and cyber-comments about how cyber shouldn't be used all the time. This always just turns into cyber-rage.
Stop cyber-hatin', and start cyber-lovin'!
This is my footer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I got several full ride scholarships while I was in high school. And I'm pretty sure winning them didn't make me any cooler with any clique in high school but my own.
I also don't think the wealth is why people idolize sports and entertainment stars today, not that it isn't a factor, but there is money in plenty of professions where people aren't idolized. I think it's more the attention and in many cases respect, but they get attention and respect because people idolize them, which is leading me around kinda recursively.
The question I have is how did the entire industry go from being disrespected to being respected. That process could probably be the subject of an entire book that I wish I could read. I think it was partially due to the news looking for something to talk about, partially due to people escaping bad times by living vicariously through stories and games so they can taste a bit of victory and joy in their otherwise drab lives. There are probably plenty of other factors too that I'm not thinking of.
But whatever the change was, it wasn't from the changes of the attitudes of the kids but the attitudes of the adults that brought it about.
I'm tired of being the only cool cybergeek ;P
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
Anyone who thinks an official endorsement of coolness has any desirability has misunderstood the concept of 'cool'.